Bodies of water are frequent metaphors in poetry, due to their unfathomable depths, unknowable sprawl, and unattainable porpoises. Set sail into the enigma with today's Groupon from Scovare Expeditions, located at Staff Jennings Marina. Choose between the following options:

• For $19, you get a 50-minute introduction to sailing lesson, available at 4:30 p.m., Sunday–Friday (a $40 value).
• For $29, you get one of four 1.5-hour cruises (a $59 value). Cruise options include the Evening Sail, Sunset Sail, City Lights Cruise, and Starlight or Full Moon Sail.
  
  

Scovare's salty captains unveil the windblown channels of the Willamette River to budding sailors and sight-seeing passengers. Students lay hands on helm and handle lines in the introductory sailing class, learning to harness the wind to pull the vessel the way one harnesses a neighbor to pull a lawnmower. Summer-evening sailing cruises embark at 6 p.m., cooling passengers on hot days with river breezes, and sunset cruises put keels to currents tinged with amber reflections at 7:30 p.m. nightly through the first of September. Passengers bask in the glow of Portland's glittering skyline on City Lights Cruises (9 p.m. during summer, 7:30 p.m. after September 1). Until October, Full Moon Cruises depart docks at 10:30 p.m. to slip through starlit waters on a mission to rescue solar-powered submarines.

Routes for each cruise vary, with some excursions heading upriver past the Palatine Castle and around scenic Elk Rock Island. Other outings tour the Holgate Channel, passing the downtown riverfront and winding around the west side of Ross Island. Passengers may request their preferred route.